Species
Cotoneaster glaucophyllus
Etymology
Cotoneaster: From cotoneus an old Latin name for the quince, and possibly aster, corruption of adinstar 'resembling', i.e. quince-like
glaucophyllus: Blue or greyish/bluish leaves; having bloom on the leaves
Common Name(s)
cotoneaster, large-leaved cotoneaster
Family
Rosaceae
Flora Category
Vascular - Exotic
COTGLA
The
National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
Structural Class
Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs
Habitat
Terrestrial. Prefers free draining soil (Fromont and King, 1992). Gardens, bushland, wasteland areas and along railway lines. (Ermert and Clapp 1998) Wasteland, scrub in gullies, a garden weed (Webb et al., 1988). Stream banks, riverbeds, coastal and inshore islands, dry shrublands, rocklands, forest steeplands, coastal forest, forest margins and slips, roadside, quarries, wasteland, exotic plantations (Fromont and King, 1992).
Features
Spreading, evergreen shrub 2-5 m high. Stems erect at first then arching, young shoots buff coloured, maturing to dark reddish purple. Leaves up to 70 x 35 mm mostly distributed along young long shoots, often clustered on short shoots. dull and hairless above, pale tomentose below, but becoming hairless. flowers in groups of 15-60, petals white and spreading. Fruit 4-7mm diameter, scarlet or orange-red, glossy.
Similar Taxa
Similar to C. coriaceus, but the veins are not obvious on the upper surface of the leaf. Also similar to C. pannosus, but this species has smaller leaves with the lower surface persistently tomentose.
Flowering
October, November, December, January
Flower Colours
White
Fruiting
February - August
Year Naturalised
1982
Origin
China, N. temperate Old World regions, Himalayas
Reason For Introduction
Ornamental
Life Cycle Comments
Perennial. Life-span expected to be several decades i.e. may outlive shrubby coprosmas (Fromont and King, 1992). Likely to have seed bank viability of about 2 years (Fromont and King, 1992).
Reproduction
Reproduces by seed.
Seed
Each fruit contains many seeds with high viability
Dispersal
Birds eat berries and the contained seeds are dispersed accordingly (Fromont and King, 1992)(Ermert and Clapp 1998).
Tolerances
Tolerant of moderate shade, tolerant of frost, tolerant of grazing (will resprout if cut), wide moisture tolerance (Fromont and King, 1992).
This page last updated on 23 May 2016